[SPARCbook] Re: Booting CD

[Miles Nordin]

> esp0: !TC on MSG OUT [intr 10, stat 82, step 1] pevphase 6, resid 4
> cd0(esp0:6:0): Sense Error Code 0x60 at block no. 1536 (decimal)
> mount_cd9660: /dev/cd0a on /cdrom: Input/output error"

aah.  I can't claim I know exactly what this means, but I suspect bad 
CD-ROM media.  One problem here is that the GENERIC NetBSD kernels are 
compiled with ``SCSIVERBOSE'', which prints an English description for 
that sense-key or whatever.  The INSTALL kernels (the ones on the miniroot 
or mini-iso or whatever)leave out the verbose error messages to save space.

Error code 0x60,0x00 is ``Lamp Failure'', so, uh, I think I'm looking 
in the wrong place :).  I don't really understand scsipi.

Could you try one or both of the following:

  (a) Attach the Aiwa CD-ROM to another known-working Unix machine, and 
      attempt to read the whole cd.  something like:

       dd if=/dev/rcd0c of=/dev/null conv=noerror,sync bs=2k

      It should eventually give you an error like ``end of media'' or 
      ``end of file'' or ``invalid seek offset,'' or on Linux some kind 
      of read-ahead data corruption or kernel panic or something.  Whatever.
      something which reassuringly suggests end-of-media on your 
      OS-of-choice.

      ``read error'' or ``medium error'' or something, in the middle of 
      the cd, that suggests more compellingly bad media.  It's, a little 
      hard to tell the difference. :'  A kernel with verbose SCSI 
      error messages helps some, such as Solaris-GENERIC or NetBSD-GENERIC.  
      Are there any other Sun's laying around?

  (b) Reburn the same CD image again.  Maybe use a different brand of 
      blank.  If your CD-ROM is only 1x, it may be too old to have the 
      CDR blank-compatibility of modern drives.  I have a ``Sony CD-ROM 
      Discman'' which is 2x and has a terrible time with CDR's.

It could also be a problem with NetBSD's SCSI driver, or with the SCSI 
cabling itself.  Did you recheck termination as suggested by Nabokov? or 
try the CD-ROM drive on another computer?

I am not the best person to help you with this, because I've done most of 
my NetBSD installs by netbooting.  NetBSD was one of the last to get 
into the posting-iso's trend, so all that framework is new.  There may 
be gotcha's I don't know about it---you might try port-sparc at netbsd.org.

However, since you note that your problem happens with all OS's, my 
tendency is to suggest trying OS-independent solutions.  ex., hypotheses 
like:

  Bad CD media
  Bad SCSI cabling
  Bad termination

Plugging the CD-ROM into another computer with SCSI would really help, 
but I guess sometimes there isn't one available.

> You need a drive that can be set to 512 byte block. Most Plextor, any Sun
> OEM, some Sony, Yamaha, Matsushita and Toshiba drives will do.

I agree so far as that Aiwa makes crapola, period, so I am suspicious of it 
just based on the brand.  However, my hazy understanding of the 512-byte 
block deal contradicts what you're discussing.  But I could be wrong---please 
someone correct me if this sounds strange:

OpenPROM has no CD-ROM driver or an incompltete CD-ROM driver, so it's 
impossible to boot a Sun off 'cd' unless the CD-ROM drive you're using 
can pretend to be a hard disk for OBP's benefit.  But, once the OS is 
booted, a complete CD-ROM driver is usually available, so there is no 
need for this 512-byte pretending-ability once the kernel is running.  
Certainly this is true with Linux and NetBSD, maybe with Solaris.